At just over eight minutes long, Kseniya Simonova's entry for Ukraine's Got Talent rings of epic storytelling -- countless grains of sand swishing over a light panel to tell the story of young love crushed under the heel of the Second World War.

Simonova would win the competition, after reducing judges -- and much of the audience -- to tears. Her prize? About $110,000. More importantly, a universal message about the blight of war has found fresh resonance today.

As Vartan Oskanian, Armenia's former foreign minister, writes in Al Jazeera, "the WWII parallels are emanating from those in positions of power and influence, and it's heard in real time, as the situation evolves."

"The truth is," Oskanian concludes, "The world today is hugely different from what it was."

A boy looks out from the window of a bus in the eastern Ukrainian city of Lugansk on April 13, 2014. AFP PHOTO / DIMITAR DILKOFF